Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-01-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many times the Prison Service Gold Command opened in each month since May 2010; and what the nature was of each incident that caused it to be opened.

Andrew Selous

The safety of staff and prisoners is a priority. Gold Command is opened in order to deal with incidents as quickly and safely as possible. Not all incidents turn out to be serious, but all incidents are regarded as potentially serious at the point of Gold being opened up.

Prisons are dealing with an increasingly violent population, and the effects of novel psychoactive substances. We take a zero tolerance approach to drugs in prisons, and have recently introduced tough new laws which will see those who smuggle packages over prison walls, including drugs, face up to two years in prison. There are already a range of robust measures in place to detect drugs, including the use of sniffer dogs, searches of cells, and mandatory drugs tests.

Table 1: Gold Command Openings by Month and Incident Type May 2010 – December 2015